Influencers have become central to many brands’ campaigns, and they’ve mastered the art of making their content look natural and effortless. But, like most things, it often takes a great team to make it all come together with successful campaign management.
Even if you’re not an influencer, you can play a big role in influencer campaigns by going behind the scenes. That’s what IZEA’s Kayci Webster is doing as senior campaign and operations manager. Once a company or brand contracts with IZEA to create a campaign, Kayci’s work begins; she serves as the connector who brings all the information and players together to make content that stands out and is a good fit both for the brand and the creator.
Campaign Management Behind the Scenes
Before IZEA can launch a successful campaign, its campaign management team gets clear on what the company is looking for from the campaign and what kind of messaging fits with their brand.
“That’s when we can start finding the right people to promote their messaging on social media,” Kayci said. IZEA’s creator marketplace, Shake, offers a wide selection of influencers to choose from, and Kayci said they search for the creators that are best suited for each brand. Once Kayci and her team have identified creators who are a good fit for the brand, they present the options to the client and let them select which influencers they like best.
“It’s all about finding the right type of influencer for the right type of audience,” she said. “For example, we recently wrapped a campaign for a company that wanted to get younger people to shop at a certain store for their products. So, we used TikTok to promote it to that audience and further their reach.”
Part of the campaign’s success depends on being able to play matchmaker: Not all creators are the right fit for a brand or for a particular campaign. Understanding the different social media platforms and who they appeal to is also critical for campaign managers. And it’s essential to strategize recommendations for clients based on what they want to accomplish on each platform. In some cases, it can mean educating the client about what will work best for them.
“Let’s say someone wants more traffic and wants to appeal to a younger age group, but they’re using Facebook. But if they’re trying to reach Gen Z or younger, that’s not going to work. So, we might say, ‘Let’s get Instagram content and have the creators share it to their Facebook.’ That way they can have diverse organic coverage, and they have a clickable link in Facebook. Then we can promote that content to their audience on both platforms and optimize it to drive traffic back to their website.”
Creating the campaign
Once a strategy is in place and influencers are locked in, there are specific campaign needs to consider — such as whether there are certain video aspect ratios they want used, choosing hashtags, and determining if links are needed to drive traffic to a specific place. Kayci said that while IZEA is responsible for creating the campaign, it’s a collaborative effort with the client. And, in some cases, the client may come in with a clear picture of what they want and simply ask IZEA to execute it.
Thanks to IZEA’s reputation for creating and executing influencer campaigns, it works with a diverse selection of brands, which means each day is a little different. Kayci said it’s a great way to flex creative muscles and enjoy variety. “Every campaign is different and that’s what I love about it,” she said. “We could be doing something as simple and straightforward as TikTok videos of pork tenderloin recipes or taking three influencer ambassadors and flying them to Miami for a photo shoot. There are so many different asks you get from a brand — really anything you can think of — that we can make happen. And it’s that variety that keeps this job interesting and exciting every day.”
While the job is fun and engaging, it means having the skills to switch between campaigns quickly and keep each one on track.
“It’s a lot of bouncing back and forth between things with different ideas and different focuses on each campaign,” she said. “At any time, any member of the campaign management team could be running five to 15 active campaigns at the same time.”
She said bringing time management skills to the job is essential, as is organization and communication.
“You could say that about any job, but those are the three key things needed to be able to juggle that many brands, that many different marketing focuses, and that many different social platforms. You could literally be juggling hundreds of influencers at the same time while things are running. So, it definitely requires solid communication skills, solid time management, and the occasional multitasking.”
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